Knowing The Word in 2 Corinthians 9:3-5, Get the Gift Ready

3 But I am sending the brothers so that our boasting about you may not prove empty in this matter, so that you may be ready, as I said you would be. 4 Otherwise, if some Macedonians come with me and find that you are not ready, we would be humiliated—to say nothing of you—for being so confident. 5 So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead to you and arrange in advance for the gift you have promised, so that it may be ready as a willing gift, not as an exaction.

Paul is concerned that if the Corinthians fail to give, it is evidence that their faith is “empty” or not genuine. There is a huge difference when people willingly give than when people are taxed. A tax is an extraction of money but giving freely comes from a thankful spirit and out of the depths of love that Christians have for each other anchored in their love of God. When we look at our own giving, do we give out of love or out of duty only? Do we give to serve God and others or to save face in our own church community? There really is a difference.

Pour into our hearts the spirit of unselfishness, so that, when our cup overflows, we may seek to share our happiness with our brethren. O thou God of love, who makest thy sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendest rain on the just and the unjust, grant that we may become more and more thy true children, by receiving into our souls more of thine own spirit of ungrudging and unwearying kindness; which we ask in the name of Jesus Christ.

John Hunter, 1849-1917